Dallas Life Blog

Dylann Roof is flanked by police as he appears via video during a bond hearing on nine counts of murder in Charleston, S.C., Friday. (The New York Times)

Charleston, S.C., shooter Dylann Roof is presumed to be a racist because of the racist things he spewed before taking the lives of nine good people who were studying the Bible.

It remains to be seen, though, that racial ideology was the prime driver of his cruel and depraved act. We don’t know his mental state — whether he was delusional and possibly detached from reality — when he opened fire at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

In other words, did a racist or crazy man commit the murders?

Either answer — or a combination — has no bearing on the level of grief people are dealing with. But I wonder if pure racism could make the crime more understandable and easier to process than if Roof’s lawyers construct an elaborate insanity defense.

Three cases come to mind in this regard. One was the execution of Mark Stroman, who was put to death for a shooting spree in Dallas that he said was driven by revenge for the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Stroman said his sister was in one of the buildings and that his rampage was driven by a xenophobic rage.

I never bought that, and Stroman’s claim about his sister was never substantiated. To me, he was a self-pitying loser looking to assign blame elsewhere. One pathetic irony is that none of the three people he shot was Arab. They all were Asian, including one person who emerged from the tragedy as a redemptive figure.

Rais Bhuiyan, a 37-year-old immigrant from Bangladesh, was the only survivor of Stroman’s racist spree. He went on to found an idealistic organization, World Without Hate, and tried to postpone Stroman’s execution so the two could meet. Bhuiyan had forgiven his attacker and wanted to tell him face to face.

Think about it: That act of absolution was possible because of Stroman’s sanity. Read about it in the compelling book The True American, by Anand Giridharadas, who traced the lives of an educated, hard-working immigrant and an American racist creep.

As in Roof’s case, he reportedly had visions of touching off a racial holy war. As Roof did, he attacked unsuspecting people at their place of worship. Page reacted differently than Roof did as police closed in. Wounded in the stomach by a police officer, he shot himself in the head rather than be taken into custody.

There were no reports that Page was psychotic; rather, he appeared to be what we in the media would call a race-baiting misfit, or things like that.

“I’m hoping to God that we can forgive — we can get past the trauma that this man has caused and work on the deeper issues of socio-economics or of racial tension that has long been there.”

Again, a survivor has something tangible to hang on to: hate that corrodes someone’s soul and erupts in tragedy.

Somehow, I think most people have a better gut understanding of hate than the mysteries of mental illness. Seung-Hui Cho’s rampage at Virginia Tech, which left 32 dead, has been linked to his deteriorating mental state.

Cho also committed suicide after carrying out his massacre. He left behind a confession of sorts, a rambling video rant that has one parallel with Roof’s reported statement to his victims.

Antiquers and lovers of vintage, as of Saturday there’s a new place to shop.

There’s been a Fair Park flea market for decades. It rotated from building to building at the historic park, depending on which one had working electricity or no leaks in the roof. Brian Buchanan of Oklahoma, who has been running the current version for 19 years, convinced city and Fair Park officials to let him greatly expand the venue as well as the concept by moving to the Cotton Bowl.

Starting Saturday, the new name is Cotton Bowl Trade Days. Buchanan says the weekend’s event is a soft opening to get the word out. His 100 or so dealers from the Buchanan’s venue are moving with him to the historic and beloved stadium. He plans to add more antique and vintage dealers plus sellers of services, landscape plants, garage sale items, eBayers and Craigslisters. He also will welcome artists, artisans, etsy sellers and anybody who gets a wild hair to load the car with yard-sale junk and show up without a reservation.

But that’s on down the road. He envisions a Canton Trade Days that will cost locals less gasoline and travel time, plus weatherproof buildings that will let shoppers get out of the heat, the cold and the rain.

The first Cotton Bowl Trade Days is 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Entry to the park is $5 per car. Entry to shop the Cotton Bowl will be either free or $2 this time; Buchanan has not decided yet. Subsequent trade days will be the third weekend of January through July, November and December. There will be no trade days in August through October because of the State Fair of Texas.

Michael Salazar,11, of West Dallas Community School tries on a lemon head during Lemonade Day Greater Dallas announcements at Trinity Groves in March. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings declared May 4, 2014 as Lemonade Day. (Ron Baselice/Staff Photographer)

It’s gonna be HOT on Sunday, like 95 degrees, so it’s a perfect day to take part in Lemonade Day, a national celebration in which children and teens set up lemonade stands as part of learning about entrepreneurship, from business plan to selling. The whole thing culminates Sunday when participants will tout their drinks around North Texas (see website for full list of stand locations).

Tierany Johnson, 9, left, and Destiny Santana, 8, spoke with Richard L. Mauldin, a vice president with Texas Capital Bank, on April 22 about their business plan to open a lemonade stand in Mesquite. (Mona Reeder/The Dallas Morning News)

At the Best Tasting Lemonade Contest (which was postponed from April 27 because of weather) at Trinity Groves, the public can sample recipes and vote for the People’s Choice Award. The celebrity judges — Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett, KRLD CEO Spotlight host David Johnson, restaurateur Phil Romano, businesswoman Gail Warrior, Maddie Bradshaw (a teen entrepreneur who was featured on Shark Tank) andTrey Bowles, founder of Dallas Entrepreneur Center – will also taste and pick their favorites. The winning recipe will be served at restaurants in Trinity Groves.

The contest is Sunday from 2 to 3 p.m. at Trinity Groves, 425 Bedford St. (on the west side of the Trinity River, just west of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge), Dallas. Free. dallas.lemonadeday.org.

A garden reader emailed that she saw her first monarch of the year in her Flower Mound backyard. It fluttered from ajuga ground cover in bloom, seeking nectar to sustain it.

Ajuga is a poor excuse for a meal, but the North Texas winter has thrown plants off kilter. We gardeners are still not sure what is dead and what is alive. Landscapes are greening up rapidly now, but little is in bloom in the way of butterflies’ favorite nectar sources.

Milkweeds (Asclepias spp.) are the only plants a monarch female will lay eggs on. That’s because her caterpillars only eat milkweed leaves. The flowers are a nectar source, but monarchs also will feed on flowers with a daisy-like structure; that broad, flat bloom makes an easy landing pad for them.

Without milkweed plants, the monarch population will continue to decline in the Americas. Native milkweeds are slow to sprout new growth each spring, so scientists urge citizens to plant nursery-grown milkweeds in beds and containers as soon as they appear in stores. The easiest milkweed to find in North Texas garden centers is Mexican milkweed (A. curassavica), with varieties that bloom orange or gold. It is not native to Texas and most plants did not survive the winter. It is drought- and heat-tolerant and easy to grow. Its wind-borne seeds, attached to puffs of white silk, naturally propagate.

Some are awaiting their first delivery, others are sold out and awaiting more. A few report inventory in various pot sizes, from 4 inches to 2 gallons. Now is the best time to plant them in your yard. As always, call before driving.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, organizers of the Park Cities Historic & Preservation Society expect a traffic jam in the 4700 block of Preston Road, coming and going. That’s the drop-off for ticket holders expecting to see developer and history buff Harlan Crow’s private library and his compelling collection of cast-off despots and dictators.

Crow and his wife, Kathy, agreed to open their estate for the benefit of the preservation society. The house was designed in 1917 by noted architect Anton Korn. The family wing added in 2003 and the 2004 library wing, with its massive collection of books, art and artifacts focusing on American history, are part of the tour.

Just as compelling, especially for tour-goers who witnessed the Cold War and remember when certain downtown Dallas buildings acquired bomb shelter designation, is a garden along his Turtle Creek property where statues of the likes of Stalin, Lenin, Tito, Ceausescu, Mubarak and others hide among the trees and shrubbery. Crow has been collecting them as they fell out of favor with fellow countrymen and were dismantled.

For Crow, who considers himself a fierce American patriot, the figures represent historical and political lessons the free world should not forget. This is the first time the collection will be viewed by the public.

A valet service will handle patrons’ cars, but organizers say online purchases alone already have exceeded last year’s ticket sales. Tour publicity director Sharon Adams predicts ticket holders who park on Lakeside Drive by Exall Lake and walk will spend the least amount of time stalled in traffic.

Tickets to tour the three houses and a repurposed municipal pump house now in private hands are $25 at the door and at Tom Thumb stores in the Park Cities area. Go to pchps.org to find store addresses.

A whopper of an estate sale opens at 9 a.m. Friday. I am not referring to the size of the estate or the number of items up for sale, although the sum is staggering. Stylish possessions with less than six degrees of separation from international tastemaker Stanley Marcus are being disbursed Friday and Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Alice Snavely was Mr. Stanley’s private secretary and confidante for 34 years. Her home north of Northwood Country Club was furnished with Asian antiques and decorative objects that filled the walls and tabletops: carved figures, porcelains and pottery, artifacts, paintings, etc., etc. There are Chinese chests, tables and chairs. Upholstery fabrics in bright colors are simple and tasteful, so as not to detract from the world of treasures arrayed around them. The furniture accessorizes the collections, rather than the other way around.

Snavely died Nov. 25, 2012 at age 84. It is clear that she was a super shopper, true to her Dallas roots. It had to have taken estate sale entrepreneur Janelle Stone and her employees weeks and weeks to sort and price everything in the house, including jewels, clothing, purses and shoes, many with price tags intact, never worn. Settings of dishes and all the accoutrements that go with formal and casual entertaining are for sale, as well as what is evidently a lifetime supply of incandescent light bulbs.

Brass Buddha

Sadly, the decades-long close relationship between Mr. Stanley and Mrs. Snavely was marred when Marcus asked the Dallas district attorney to look into his suspicions his assistant allegedly had embezzled funds from his personal holdings. She was charged with a criminal complaint, but Marcus dropped the charges after Snavely made restitution, according to documents filed by the U.S. Tax Court in 1994.

The overwintering monarch population in Mexico again has dropped sharply, according to the numbers reported by World Wildlife Fund, Mexico. From a high of almost 21 hectares in 1996-97, the number has dropped to .67 hectares for the 2013-14 season.

Scientists in North America predicted the decrease, but that’s little comfort. Loss of habitat, the adoption of herbicide-tolerant crops and the increasing market for ethanol are the main causes for the ongoing monarch decline. Milkweed plants, the monarch larva’s sole food source, is considered a weed by agriculture.

Climate change also contributes to the butterfly’s plight as it makes it long migration to breeding grounds in spring and its return to overwintering colonies in Mexico in the fall. Cool, rainy summers affected reproductive success and early, harsh cold killed butterflies returning south.

In addition, mowing highway roadsides for tidiness — a common sight along freeways in North Texas — kills the native stands of milkweed plants, where monarch females lay eggs.

Monarch numbers will rebound, Monarch Watch scientists say, but only if the weather cooperates and there is enough milkweed to increase the population. “Given the current size of the overwintering population,” reports monarchwatch.org, “it is likely that it will take two to three years with relatively favorable breeding conditions for the population to attain such numbers.”

The only way citizens can help the monarchs survive is to plant milkweed — lots and lots of milkweed.

Fort Worth-based Calloway’s Nursery has an antidote for mid-winter blues. On Thursday only, you can buy one orchid and get a second free at any North Texas Calloway’s store.

Phalaenopsis orchids are the easiest to keep alive, and if you provide the right home for the beauties you can get several weeks of luscious blooms out of a single plant. The BOGO offer is a 4-inch plant that needs water once a week or less. Orchids love high humidity but they rot if their roots are left in standing water. Water only when your pinkie poked into the growing medium feels dry. And don’t cut back the blooming stem when the first set of flowers drop; a second stem of blooms may appear as an offshoot.

$19.99 for two pots of blooming orchids. Calloway’s stores are open daily from 9 a.m. to 6. p.m.

Ornamental kale is among the seasonal annuals providing winter color at the Dallas Arboretum.

On the heels of announcing the temporary closure of the children’s garden for maintenance, the Dallas Arboretum said today it is cutting admission to $5 a head through the end of January.

Usually, general admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors 65 and older, $10 for children 3 to 12, and free for children 2 and under. Onsite parking remains $10 for nonmembers. Admission tickets must be purchased at the gate, but discounted daytime parking passes may be purchased online for $5 per vehicle.

Even in the middle of winter, the arboretum is scenic, with its green lawns, plenty of evergreens, and seasonal color including pansies, ornamental kale and other cool-weather annuals. There’s also a 1-mile fitness trail, and don’t forget the stunning views of White Rock Lake.

The arboretum is one of the prettiest places in the city for a brisk winter walk or birdwatching. The $5 ticket also makes it much more affordable.

Beginning Monday, Jan. 13, the hugely successful children’s garden at the arboretum will close for several weeks. Like everybody’s else’s garden in the Dallas area, the grounds need attention to minimize the unsightliness of dun-colored plant materials brought about by intemperate weather.

“As with any outdoor installation, especially one as complex as the Children’s Garden, the Dallas Arboretum needs to close the garden for a short time to do preventative maintenance, especially since there is less traffic during these cold days,” said Mary Brinegar, president of the Dallas Arboretum.

A spokeswoman cannot say how many weeks the new garden will be off limits, but the rest of the arboretum remains open, as usual.

If you were planning an outing with the kids or grandkids this month, try the butterfly house at Texas Discovery Gardens or the Dallas Zoo.